Romain Grosjean: “We were hoping for a bit better”

Romain Grosjean was unhappy with the outcome of qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after ending only fourteenth on the grid, seven places worse than he achieved two weeks ago in Brazil.

The Haas F1 Team driver admitted to struggling throughout the session at the Yas Marina Circuit, and felt that the team need to find the reasons to why they are sometimes showing strong pace and attacking the top ten, but at other times they are struggling to make it through to Q2.

“I’m disappointed with that qualifying session,” said Grosjean. “Clearly, we were hoping for a bit better. We had a lot of problems yesterday and we were still hoping that we’d made the right decisions.

“We did as much as we could, but we need to get more understanding of the tyres. I think we’re spending too much energy just to get all four corners working. It’s the same for everyone, so that’s where we need to focus.

“We’ve seen that when we get things right, like in Brazil, we’re very fast. When we’re not, we’re usually around 14th and 15th. That’s the number one priority for now.”

Grosjean has not had the most straightforward weekend so far, and heads into Sunday’s race without any reasonable knowledge of how the car and tyres will work over a long run.

“For the race tomorrow, I’ve got no idea what to think,” said Grosjean. “I didn’t get to do any long runs. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”